“12 Days of Christmas” Workout

Happy Holidays! 

It's easy to let your workout routine slide during the holiday season. It's more fun to spend time eating at the buffet and drinking egg nog with friends and family than it is to make time for fitness.  But, fitness is a yearlong endeavor and New Year's resolutions are right around the corner.  

I recently heard of the "12 Days of Christmas" Workout and thought, although challenging, it is a fun way to infuse holiday spirit into an exercise routine.

Here’s how it works.  It’s a little different from the song.  For this workout, you’ll be going in reverse order from the song.  Normally, you’d start at the first day, the small number, and go to the last day, the big number.  For this workout, you’ll start with the 12^th day and go down from there.

For example, you’ll start with 12 repetitions of the first exercise.  Then, you’ll go for 12 of the first exercise again, 11 of the second, etc.  Start over with 12 reps of the first exercise, 11 of the second, and 10 of the third.  Keep repeating just like that until you’ve done all 12 exercises.  When you’re done, you will have completed 650 total reps. 

Here are my thoughts for a "12 Days of Christmas" Workout routine along with a link to a video explaining how to properly complete each exercise:

12 squats

11 butt kicks (1 minute)

10 oblique V-sit ups

9 Everest climbers

8 frog jumps

7 side lunges

6 chair dips (You will need a chair or ledge.)

5 laying down bicycles (5 intervals of 20 seconds)

4 Supermans

3 V-sit (30 seconds)

2 dive bomber push-ups

1 minute plank

Have a fun - and fit - holiday season!

For additional information concerning Fitness for Health's individual or small group training, visit www.FitnessForHealth.org.